Cidália Botelho graduated in Chemical Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP) in 1987 and joined the Department of Chemical Engineering of FEUP as Teaching Assistant in 1988. In 1992, she obtained her Master degree, in the area of Chemical Engineering - Applied Chemistry, from IST-Lisboa. In 1991, she developed part of her master dissertation at EAWAG-ETH in Switzerland. She obtained her Ph.D degree in the area of Speciation of Metals in Surface Waters from FEUP in 1998. Since 1998, she pursues her teaching and research career at FEUP and LSRE-LCM.